Officials facial hair and hair style

[tomegun]

I'm not African American, but I am black (don't get me started on that) and I have experienced what the OP is talking about. On the west coast, I was criticized for being a "bald angry black man." I moved to the east coast and nobody said a word about it. I moved back to the west coast and haven't heard it at all. I don't know if I'm slowly shedding my military bearing or it just doesn't matter anymore.

After 20 years in the military, where a fade (tapered) haircut was once considered faddish for black guys, I can tell you that you are going to have problems with the corn rows. You will be viewed in the same light as a rapper/actor/athlete/thug/gangster. I hate to say this and I hate this saying, but it is what it is.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by tomegun

I'm not African American, but I am black (don't get me started on that) and I have experienced what the OP is talking about. On the west coast, I was criticized for being a "bald angry black man." I moved to the east coast and nobody said a word about it. I moved back to the west coast and haven't heard it at all. I don't know if I'm slowly shedding my military bearing or it just doesn't matter anymore.

After 20 years in the military, where a fade (tapered) haircut was once considered faddish for black guys, I can tell you that you are going to have problems with the corn rows. You will be viewed in the same light as a rapper/actor/athlete/thug/gangster. I hate to say this and I hate this saying, but it is what it is.

But being told your service isn't required after 4 games? This must be an assigner for the tourney and not an officials association, cause I can't imagine any real assigner pulling this crap.

And I read it more as "we don't like these guys -- we need a reason to get rid of them -- they call too much, they call not enough, we don't like black people -- for whatever reason."

I doubt I'd leave without making an effort to get paid, either. This is why all assignments should have contracts attached to them.

[fullor30]

Originally Posted by tomegun

I'm not African American, but I am black (don't get me started on that) and I have experienced what the OP is talking about. On the west coast, I was criticized for being a "bald angry black man." I moved to the east coast and nobody said a word about it. I moved back to the west coast and haven't heard it at all. I don't know if I'm slowly shedding my military bearing or it just doesn't matter anymore.

After 20 years in the military, where a fade (tapered) haircut was once considered faddish for black guys, I can tell you that you are going to have problems with the corn rows. You will be viewed in the same light as a rapper/actor/athlete/thug/gangster. I hate to say this and I hate this saying, but it is what it is.

Ha, I know plenty of bald, angry, white guys.

You're right about the perception of course and the only way IMHO to overcome that is to be 110% professional. Make the crowd/person admit to themselves that they prejudged you and they were wrong.

It has to be tough. The white official is 'quiet' and the black one is labeled 'angry or surly'.

We have a black ref in our area, a new young guy, with dreads. I know it's going to be tough for him to move up.

It's hard fighting first impressions.

That said, the assigner who took those games back is gutless.

[DLH17]

Originally Posted by fullor30

Ha, I know plenty of bald, angry, white guys.

You're right about the perception of course and the only way IMHO to overcome that is to be 110% professional. Make the crowd/person admit to themselves that they prejudged you and they were wrong.

It has to be tough. The white official is 'quiet' and the black one is labeled 'angry or surly'.

We have a black ref in our area, a new young guy, with dreads. I know it's going to be tough for him to move up.

It's hard fighting first impressions.

That said, the assigner who took those games back is gutless.

I would hope there would be a desire on the part of any assignor that is turly interested in developing young and/or new officials to have a sincere conversation(s) to help set expectations and give helpful tips for ways to improve as an individual and advance.

I'll share a related experience: My daughter played YMCA league hoops a couple years back. Most everything about that league was inconsistent with the exception of a young, black official who sported corn rows. I'll never forget the first time I saw him when we entered the gym that season. It was like..."OK, this might be interesting". I volunteered to run the book or clock, whatever, and got to know him. He cared about doing a great job for the kids and had an excellent attitude and disposition. In fact, he did a great job of helping mentor newer partners (that looked more "the part") as the season progressed.

Sometimes looks can be a red flag. Sometimes they mean relatively nothing....which was my experience with the YMCA official. He's going to have a fun career if he sticks with it.

[JRutledge]

First let me say I am African-American and Black. You can be both or one or the other depending on your ethnic background.

Let me say that no matter how you slice it, we still live in a relatively conservative society. Even though we are not shocked that someone shows some individuality, it is not accepted in all walks of life. I for a brief time had braids while I was in college back in the day. I did so because I did not work in a profession that required a certain look. Before I left school and before I became an official that changed. I would never today wear dreadlocks or have braids of any kind. Right or wrong I also have enough to overcome in perception that makes people think one more thing of me negatively that I can control. I cannot control my race or my ethnicity, but I can control my hairstyle and the tattoos or markings I have on my body. And if you look at most officials, they look a certain way and do you have a metal band hair cut or even look like the players with their hairstyles and tattoos. I do not see coaches that are African-American and Black wearing these things, so why should I? We are in positions of authority and people want those individuals to look a certain way or not be threatening. That does not mean that I do not have to overcome the "Angry Black Man" stereotype. But I am not going to add to that by what by looking like Lil Wayne either.

Peace

[Mark Padgett]

Count me as one of those who feel you got screwed for a ridiculous reason. One question - in your OP, you mention both the tournament director and the assignor. Did you ever find out whose decision this actually was? It may have been the tournament director's. You kind of imply that when you stated you felt the assignor should have "had your back".

One other comment - if you had any plastic in your hair, it could have been a safety issue, but your partner not only had nothing in his hair, he didn't even have any hair. Did he have metal clips in his moustache?

[RefAHallic]

Is your hairstyle facial hair not an issue during your regular season assignments? If so, that's odd considering my expereince. I'm Negro and guys here have to cut off ponytails, dreads and goatees to officiate. The one guy who has a beard is white, and well, I'm glad I don't get his schedule.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by RefAHallic

Is your hairstyle facial hair not an issue during your regular season assignments? If so, that's odd considering my expereince. I'm Negro and guys here have to cut off ponytails, dreads and goatees to officiate. The one guy who has a beard is white, and well, I'm glad I don't get his schedule.

LOL, we've got quite a few with goatees, none with full beards, some who are bald, and some who wear belted pants.

None of the bald black guys seemed particularly angry to me, though.

[bainsey]

For what it's worth, one of the more respected officials on our board, and a recent board president, has a neatly trimmed moustache. As long as I've known him, he always has. I've never seen cornrolls on an official, but I'm in Maine. We don't know cornrolls from cornbread.

NEOhio, if an assigner has a problem with the way you look (hair, tattoos, fat, whatever), you should be told up front and in advance. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned independent contractor status, an assigner doesn't have to tell you anything. That doesn't mean, however, that you have to forget that to have accept being treated less-than-honestly.

Could there be another issue that they're not telling you? Maybe, but it's unlikely you're going to know the truth. Some just don't care enough to give honest feedback, or they'll find a more convenient reason to get rid of you. Truth be told, this is all speculation.

The best you can take out of this is to be aware that there are people who won't be as up front as you like, and in the long run, the cornrolls could very well be a hindrance that no-one will bother to tell you about, as long as they have someone else to officiate.

[DLH17]

Originally Posted by bainsey

For what it's worth, one of the more respected officials on our board, and a recent board president, has a neatly trimmed moustache. As long as I've known him, he always has. I've never seen cornrolls on an official, but I'm in Maine. We don't know cornrolls from cornbread.

NEOhio, if an assigner has a problem with the way you look (hair, tattoos, fat, whatever), you should be told up front and in advance. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned independent contractor status, an assigner doesn't have to tell you anything. That doesn't mean, however, that you have to forget that to have accept being treated less-than-honestly.

Could there be another issue that they're not telling you? Maybe, but it's unlikely you're going to know the truth. Some just don't care enough to give honest feedback, or they'll find a more convenient reason to get rid of you. Truth be told, this is all speculation.

The best you can take out of this is to be aware that there are people who won't be as up front as you like, and in the long run, the cornrolls could very well be a hindrance that no-one will bother to tell you about, as long as they have someone else to officiate.

What a huge statement....so true. In the area where I officiate, we have seen the total number of active officials grow almost exponentially over the last 2 to 3 years.

These are tight economic times and people that would never have considered officiating as an alternate source of income 5 to 10 years ago are now suddenly jumping into the game.

Assignors are making tough decisions every day about who works what games. At the very least, sets are being reduced from 3-4 games to 2-3 game sets. I think it probably stands to reason that an official that is trying to work as much as possible in a highly competitive environment should do everything possible to avoid a negative persona.

[asdf]

Saw a similar situation a few years ago.

Couple of guys with braids worked a tourney on the recommendation of another official. (assigned -- sight unseen) When word got back to the assigner that the guys were both wearing braids, he called them up and advised that the hairtstyle was not acceptable. The guys, like some on here, protested, suggesting an ulterior motive was involved.......

The assigner advised that if they saw a white guy with a mohawk working the tourney, their suggestion would have merit.

[Raymond]

I ran into a guy a few weeks ago whom I met in camp last summer. He told me that he has been told by several supervisor that the tattoo on his forearm is a hinderance from getting hired. He wears heavy makeup to cover it up when he attends camps.